Monica Seles

Tennis Player

Born: 2 December 1973

Birthplace: Novi Sad, Yugoslavia

Best known as: Hard-hitting tennis superstar

Monica Seles became a teen tennis sensation in 1990, when she won the French Open at age 16 and then became the world's number-one ranked female tennis player. Seles was known for her aggressive game and for the distinctive grunts she made with nearly every shot. Her career came to an abrupt halt at a 1993 match when she was stabbed in the back by a crazed fan of tennis star Steffi Graf. The wound was not critical, but Seles was out of tennis for over a year and her days as the game's dominant player were over.

Extra credit: Seles became an American citizen in 1994... In 1990 she became the youngest-ever woman to win the French Open, breaking a record set the previous year by Aranxta Sanchez Vicario.